Ginsburg Joins NYU Langone as Director of High-Risk Program

Ophira Ginsburg, MD

Ophira Ginsburg, MD

NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center has announced that Ophira Ginsburg, MD, will be director of its new High-Risk Program, which will identify, study, and care for patients with hereditary syndromes that increase their risk for developing cancer.

Ginsburg will also continue her global cancer control research, which is focused on cancer disparities in North America and in low- and middle-income countries, as a faculty member in the center’s Department of Population Health. According to a release from NYU Langone, her efforts to improve cancer outcomes, particularly for women, in underserved populations began in 2004 and led her to the World Health Organization Headquarters in Geneva, where she served as a medical officer for cancer control from 2015 to 2016.

“I'm thrilled to join the faculty of NYU Langone,” Ginsburg said in a statement. “Perlmutter Cancer Center is one of the best cancer centers in the United States. The diversity, interdisciplinary collaboration, and intersection of cancer care and public health, through its work with the Department of Population Health, make this the best place to be.”

Ginsburg was previously an associate professor in the Department of Medicine and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, and was the director of a cancer genetics program at the university for the last 10 years. In her role, she and her team helped families understand their risks for developing cancer, and shaped provincial policies for cancer genetics testing and risk reduction strategies for high-risk women and men.

For example, women who test positive for a mutation in 1 of theBRCAgenes may opt for enhanced breast screening with MRI, or to undergo preventative mastectomy, and may also choose to undergo surgical removal of ovaries and fallopian tubes.

“Genetic counseling plays a critical role in navigating patients and their families through complex decision-making processes, including ways to reduce the risk of developing cancer,” said Benjamin G. Neel, MD, PhD, director of the Permutter Cancer Center, in a statement. “Ginsburg is uniquely qualified to lead these services for our patients.”

Ginsburg is the advisor to the National Cancer Hospital and National Institute for Cancer Control of Vietnam, a faculty member at the Institute of Cancer Policy, King's College London and the James P. Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University, Bangladesh. She serves on several NGO advisory boards including Young Professionals Chronic Disease Network, Global Focus on Cancer, and a founding member of Women's Health Equity Through Mobile Approaches.

She earned her medical degree from Queen’s University. She completed her residency training in internal medicine and medical oncology at the University of Toronto and did her postdoctoral fellowship in epidemiology and statistics at the Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer at the Ontario Cancer Institute.